1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a collimator device for collimating incoming light with a wide spectrum width and a laser light source for realizing irradiation with laser light obtained by collimating and then focusing incoming light with a wide spectrum width.
2. Related Background of the Invention
Processing with a laser beam is carried out using a configuration wherein a laser beam emitted to diverge from an end face of an optical fiber is collimated and thereafter the collimated laser beam is focused by a condensing lens to be concentrated at a point of a workpiece. When the laser beam is polychromatic light with a wide spectrum width such as white light, focal lengths differ depending upon wavelengths of the light. It causes positions (beam waists) where components of the light emitted from the end face of the optical fiber become plane waves relative to the end face of the optical fiber, to differ depending upon the wavelengths of the light as well, and it is thus difficult to focus the polychromatic light at a point. For this reason, the conventional laser processing technologies employ such devising that chromatic aberration is reduced by use of an achromatic lens as the condensing lens.